RED ALERT: Ovechkin-less Caps fall to third straight loss

The Capitals were without two major pieces to the puzzle last night, and both are synonymous with one another.  The Caps missed Alex Ovechkin, who injured his foot in practice, and the they lacked offense, as they feel to their third straight loss, 2-1 to Toronto.  Ovechkin missed only his second game in his career to injury, but don’t fret, Ovie is fine and will be back for Sunday’s showdown with Pittsburgh. 

When we say the Caps offense was lacking, we meant putting the puck in the net.  The Caps had plenty of opportunities and plenty of open nets, but reminiscent of last season, they also failed to convert those opportunities to goals.  They also were facing a Martin Gerber, just signed from waivers, who was on the top of his game.  The NHL’s third highest scoring team suffered a shutout in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center, which in reality, has not been real kind of over the past 10 games, in which they have gone 5-5.  It is also the first three games losing streak of Bruce Boudreau’s head coaching career in DC.  Maybe what they need is a road trip.    

Worried?  Don’t be.  This is the same Caps team that went 40-20-5.  They are a good, aggressive, high scoring team that happens to be marred in a slump.  It is best to slump now rather than later.  Even better, the Caps have not lost ground to Boston or Florida.  Both lost last night, the Caps remain 8 points behind Boston and 2 points behind New Jersey in the Eastern Conference and remains 11 points up in the Southeast Division.   The still have the 5th best record in the NHL.  San Jose slumped earlier losing 5 straight, so did Detroit.  Boston slumped earlier, so did New Jersey.  It was bound to come for Washington as well.  In fact, if you are thinking that the Caps are collapsing, do you feel that way about Boston as well?  The Bruins are marred in a similar slump, having lost 3 in a row and 5 of their last 7.  So relax, the Boudreau led Caps will awaken.  

Washington’s only goal came last in the third period by Alexander
Semin.  For Semin, it was goal number 101 in his career and he tied his
career high 5 consecutive games with a goal.  Jose Theodore took the 
loss even though he had a very good performance in net, stopping  27 of
29 shots and shutting out the Maple Leafs for two periods. 

What can be done?

First,
it is time to get Karl Alzner up to DC.  Alzner is a top 4 defensemen
on this team, period.  Make the cap room.  If the guys on the secondary
lines don’t want to start scoring, then find people who will.  Guys
like Oscar Osala, Chris Bourque, etc…. send a message. You can start
right there and don’t be surprised if Boudreau does not do some kind of
minor little shake up.      

Notables:

*  Washington lost their third straight game, the first three game losing streak since Bruce Boudreau became head coach. 

*  Caps are now 0-3 in the month of March

*
Alexander Semin scored a goal in fifth straight game, tying the longest
streak of his career.  He now has 5 goals and 4 assists in his last 5
games. 

*  Matt Bradley has not scored a goal in 26 straight
games.  He had two of the best opportunities of the night, both open
nets, and failed to convert.

*  Donald Brashear has not scored since DEC 4. 

* 
Eric Fehr has been held scoreless in his last 4 games.  But, Fehr is
also playing some excellent hockey right now.  Man, does he get some
nasty shots on goal?

*  One of those scoring slumps belongs to Tomas Flesichmann.  Flash has 2 goals in his last 20 games.   Time to scratch Flash?

*  Boyd Gordon has not scored since New Years day. 

* 
And finally, a question for Bruce Boudreau.  Why all the line shifting
and changes?  Is part of the problem maybe that Lines never have
opportunities to form any kind of chemistry?  Look at the lien of
Triple F, (Fehr, Flash,and Fedorov).  Tremendous chemistry was
developing but they go two games without scoring so you break it up? 

Peak around the Blogosphere:

Capitals Corner (MVN Partner) posts post game thoughts and declares an official slump.  Excellent game review as always from Japers’s Rink.   Puckhead
feels the way we do, that every team is destined for a slump and maybe
DC’s slump is coming at an opportunune time, especially given the fact
Boston and Philly are experincing the same ills we are in DC.  Yeah,
you can say, well, if Washington were winning now, we would be gaining
ground.  True.  But if Boston and Philly were winning right now, we
would be falling further behind.  Storming the Crease picks up on it as well.